Read a February 2018 New York Times piece on the history–yes, the history–of accusing protestors and activists of being what some people now call “crisis actors.”

A particularly gross, but damnably inevitable, aspect of the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in Parkland, Florida, was the claim by some that the eloquent young survivors were “crisis actors.”

Their accusers weren’t talking about actual crisis actors, who are people hired to play victims and survivors during realistic disaster drills. They were implying that the MSD students, who emerged from their trauma as pissed-off gun safety activists, were paid by some shadowy cabal that’s bent on destroying the Second Amendment.

Here’s the thing–while the term has changed, the concept behind the “crisis actor” has not. In a February 2018 piece for the New York Times, writer Niraj Chokshi shows it goes as least as far back as the years following the Civil War. Back then, black “outside agitators” were blamed for allegedly exaggerating their testimonies of the violence and discrimination they suffered, both from the Ku Klux Klan and in general.

In the 20th century, the nine children who bravely volunteered to integrate the public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, were accused of being paid for their trouble.

The piece does not discuss why some people are so determined to push the myth that people who step up and do and say difficult things have to be getting paid to do it. (That would be an interesting and worthy follow-up.) Regardless, it’s worth your time.

Read the New York Times piece on the history of the “crisis actor” accusation:

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Support Students for Changes, a nonprofit advocacy group started by students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of the deadly shooting on February 14, 2018.

Cofounded by three survivors of the attack that killed 17 of their peers and teachers, Students for Changes focuses on three things: gun safety, mental health, and school safety. The ultimate goal is to create a world where deadly school shootings are memories and not ever-present threats.

The pinned tweet on its Twitter page as of early March 2018 stated:

This Nonprofit Organization is started and led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas students. We’ve made this for the express purpose of connecting and consolidating the efforts of students nationwide to change our current policies and societal notions.

During the same period, its Twitter feed thanked Delta Airlines for rescinding the group discount it had offered to National Rifle Association (NRA) members, thanked Kroger, Walmart, and L.L. Bean for raising their minimum customer age for gun sales to 21, and promised to keep fighting after the Florida state senate passed, then quickly revoked, a two-year ban on the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

The founders intend this to be a student-led movement, and they encourage the creation of chapters in schools across America. As of March 4, 2018, SSC is filing to become a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit.

Help RAICES Texas fight to get migrants and their families out of detention along the southern border of the United States.

Babies are still in cages.

We wish we didn’t have to write that sentence, but we must, because it’s true.

RAICES Texas came to prominence in mid-2018 when the horrors of what the Trump administration was doing to migrant families–separating parents from kids pretty much because they could, in hopes that would scare them from coming north–became public.

The spotlight has moved to other ongoing Trump administration horrors and betrayals, but its treatment of migrants continues to be a scandal and a shame.

RAICES Texas is carrying on the fight. It’s a 33-year-old 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has evolved into the largest provider of legal services to immigrants in Texas. They have a team of more than 130 lawyers who defend migrants in court, educate them about their rights, and even help them obtain abortion care.

Congress needs to see the full report, without any White House meddling or shenanigans, and we need to see the most complete version of the report that can be released to the public, while also protecting ongoing investigations and national security. With his 19-page memo “audition” for the AG job, which caught Trump’s attention, and with his four-page summary letter released over the weekend, Barr has shown that he cannot be trusted to do right by the American people.

We need to keep calling our MoCs and making it unmistakably clear that that is what we expect. Nothing less.

Watch the NowRightNow bar for links to those who have the freshest updates.

Also watch MoveOn and its No One Is Above the Law protest network. Something is brewing. No dates yet, but in general, you’ll go back to the same spot where you protested a few months back.

Original text follows.

Call your MoCs and voice your support for releasing the Mueller Report–to Congress, in the most complete form possible, and to us, in the most complete form that can be made available to the general public. Also urge them to safeguard the underlying documents as well.

So. Damn near everyone was shocked when rumors swirled about Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivering his long-awaited report on Friday, March 22, 2019.

And what do you know, he did so late in the afternoon that day.

I’m taking a risk by writing this. It’s early Sunday morning and I’m awake for some goddamn reason (not anticipation of the report, fwiw). Attorney General William Barr, who Trump hand-picked to replace Jeff Sessions, who angered him by recusing himself from the Mueller probe, has the report, and has had it since Friday. He is evidently reviewing it and has promised to apprise Congress of its contents.

We expect this to happen sometime over the weekend. As I type this, it hasn’t happened yet. [The risk is I’ll write and queue this and something will happen to render the piece obsolete. I’m going to take that risk.]

It appears that neither Trump nor the White House has an actual copy of the report yet. They’re allowed to ask AG Barr for it. Actually giving it to them would pose yet another Constitutional issue. Let’s continue to hope he gives it to Congress first.

Trump is holed up in Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by toadies and lickspittles, some of whom have paid to be there. Instead of freaking everyone out with his guanopsychotic tweets, he’s freaking everyone out by NOT tweeting. Yeah. This is where we are now.

Anyone who says they know what’s in the Mueller Report, at least as of Sunday March 24, 3:30 am EST, is talking smack. Don’t believe them, don’t retweet them. It’s all speculation.

So, aside from engaging in self-care, what can you do?

Celeste Pewter, as always, is on it. Shortly after news broke of the report’s delivery, she tweeted:

If you’re wondering what we can all do right now? Basically: 1. Call electeds + say you support the report being released to Congress ASAP 2. Ask for a declassified version to be released to the public, 3. Preserving all Mueller-related documents.

In other words, don’t assume there are any guarantees right now. Right now, today, – is the moment to call your electeds and say you support the push for transparency. It’s time to be LOUD.

Then she posted this calling script, which covers all three of your Members of Congress:

So, there. You can do that.

Another thing to consider is to refresh yourself on where your nearest No One Is Above the Law protest took place. The powers that be at MoveOn are NOT currently calling for a protest over aspects of the release, or the failure to release, the Mueller report, but they’ve signaled that if they do call for a protest, we’re going back to the places we went on November 8, 2018, after Trump fired Sessions and replaced him with Acting AG Matthew Whitaker.

After you call, please show your appreciation for Celeste Pewter in some fashion.

You can follow her on Twitter: @Celeste_Pewter

You can tweet about calling your MoCs, using the #ICalledMyReps hashtag.

Congress needs to see the full report, without any White House meddling or shenanigans, and we need to see the most complete version of the report that can be released to the public, while also protecting ongoing investigations and national security. With his 19-page memo “audition” for the AG job, which caught Trump’s attention, and with his four-page summary letter released over the weekend, Barr has shown that he cannot be trusted to do right by the American people.

We need to keep calling our MoCs and making it unmistakably clear that that is what we expect. Nothing less.

Watch the NowRightNow bar for links to those who have the freshest updates.

Also watch MoveOn and its No One Is Above the Law protest network. Something is brewing. No dates yet, but in general, you’ll go back to the same spot where you protested a few months back.

Original text follows.

Call your MoCs and voice your support for releasing the Mueller Report–to Congress, in the most complete form possible, and to us, in the most complete form that can be made available to the general public. Also urge them to safeguard the underlying documents as well.

So. Damn near everyone was shocked when rumors swirled about Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivering his long-awaited report on Friday, March 22, 2019.

And what do you know, he did so late in the afternoon that day.

I’m taking a risk by writing this. It’s early Sunday morning and I’m awake for some goddamn reason (not anticipation of the report, fwiw). Attorney General William Barr, who Trump hand-picked to replace Jeff Sessions, who angered him by recusing himself from the Mueller probe, has the report, and has had it since Friday. He is evidently reviewing it and has promised to apprise Congress of its contents.

We expect this to happen sometime over the weekend. As I type this, it hasn’t happened yet. [The risk is I’ll write and queue this and something will happen to render the piece obsolete. I’m going to take that risk.]

It appears that neither Trump nor the White House has an actual copy of the report yet. They’re allowed to ask AG Barr for it. Actually giving it to them would pose yet another Constitutional issue. Let’s continue to hope he gives it to Congress first.

Trump is holed up in Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by toadies and lickspittles, some of whom have paid to be there. Instead of freaking everyone out with his guanopsychotic tweets, he’s freaking everyone out by NOT tweeting. Yeah. This is where we are now.

Anyone who says they know what’s in the Mueller Report, at least as of Sunday March 24, 3:30 am EST, is talking smack. Don’t believe them, don’t retweet them. It’s all speculation.

So, aside from engaging in self-care, what can you do?

Celeste Pewter, as always, is on it. Shortly after news broke of the report’s delivery, she tweeted:

If you’re wondering what we can all do right now? Basically: 1. Call electeds + say you support the report being released to Congress ASAP 2. Ask for a declassified version to be released to the public, 3. Preserving all Mueller-related documents.

In other words, don’t assume there are any guarantees right now. Right now, today, – is the moment to call your electeds and say you support the push for transparency. It’s time to be LOUD.

Then she posted this calling script, which covers all three of your Members of Congress:

So, there. You can do that.

Another thing to consider is to refresh yourself on where your nearest No One Is Above the Law protest took place. The powers that be at MoveOn are NOT currently calling for a protest over aspects of the release, or the failure to release, the Mueller report, but they’ve signaled that if they do call for a protest, we’re going back to the places we went on November 8, 2018, after Trump fired Sessions and replaced him with Acting AG Matthew Whitaker.

After you call, please show your appreciation for Celeste Pewter in some fashion.

You can follow her on Twitter: @Celeste_Pewter

You can tweet about calling your MoCs, using the #ICalledMyReps hashtag.

Call your member of the House of Representatives and ask him or her to override Trump’s veto of Congress’s vote to terminate his bullshit national emergency declaration about the southern border.

Ok, a recap. Trump has been jonesing for his damn border wall since the campaign, when he claimed he’d get Mexico to pay for it.

Of course, Mexico refused to pay for it. So Trump tried to force taxpayers to pay for it.

Congress, rightly, said no. There’s no factual basis for a wall that stretches across the entire 2,000-odd mile border between the U.S. and Mexico. It’d be a waste of money, and it won’t do what Trump claims it will. (There are better and more efficient ways to address the legitimate points he has on this score.)

When Congress said no, Trump decided to trample the Constitution instead by declaring a “national emergency”.

Presidents can declare national emergencies, and until now, they’ve been judicious and responsible in their calls. None have resorted to calling a national emergency when they didn’t get their way on something.

In March 2019, Congress called Trump out again. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted to terminate the national emergency, and so did the Senate, after much whingeing and weaseling.

Trump vetoed the Congressional termination.

Congress can override his veto, but both chambers have to muster two-thirds of their members to be successful.

The House had little trouble voting to terminate the national emergency order, but that succeeded with less than two-thirds of its members joining the effort.

The second time around is harder, by design.

If the House of Representatives can’t get two-thirds of its members to vote to override, the override vote cannot proceed to the Senate, and the national emergency takes effect.

We need 290 House members to vote to override.

On the first go-round, the vote to terminate succeeded by 245 to 182.

We need to hold those 245 and add 45 more.

This is where you come in.

We at OTYCD want you to call your member of the House of Representatives and urge that person to vote to override Trump’s veto.

It is harder to get to 290 than it is to get to 245. It means that almost four dozen Republicans have to switch sides.

We probably won’t succeed. But we have to try.

We at OTYCD expect to make this a daily action until the point is moot.

As always, you need to pick up the phone and call, because that’s what Congressfolk pay attention to. If you can’t call, send email.

Sample script:

“Dear (House Rep Lastname), I am (Firstname Lastname of town, zip code). I am calling to ask you to override Trump’s veto of the termination of the national emergency he called over the border wall.

As an elected official in Congress, I expect you to uphold the Constitution and fulfill your role as a check on Trump. With this act, he is trying to do an end run around our system of laws, and of checks and balances. [If your House Rep voted to terminate the national emergency on the first go round, say thank you here. If your House Rep supported Trump, say something like, ‘This is your chance to show that you will fulfill the oath you took when you were sworn in/sworn in again in January.’ This is bigger than Trump, and is bigger than any one person. Please do the right thing and override Trump’s veto.”

See a Business Insider story about the vote in the House to terminate Trump’s national emergency:

Call your MoCs and voice your support for releasing the Mueller Report–to Congress, in the most complete form possible, and to us, in the most complete form that can be made available to the general public. Also urge them to safeguard the underlying documents as well.

So. Damn near everyone was shocked when rumors swirled about Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivering his long-awaited report on Friday, March 22, 2019.

And what do you know, he did so late in the afternoon that day.

I’m taking a risk by writing this. It’s early Sunday morning and I’m awake for some goddamn reason (not anticipation of the report, fwiw). Attorney General William Barr, who Trump hand-picked to replace Jeff Sessions, who angered him by recusing himself from the Mueller probe, has the report, and has had it since Friday. He is evidently reviewing it and has promised to apprise Congress of its contents.

We expect this to happen sometime over the weekend. As I type this, it hasn’t happened yet. [The risk is I’ll write and queue this and something will happen to render the piece obsolete. I’m going to take that risk.]

It appears that neither Trump nor the White House has an actual copy of the report yet. They’re allowed to ask AG Barr for it. Actually giving it to them would pose yet another Constitutional issue. Let’s continue to hope he gives it to Congress first.

Trump is holed up in Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by toadies and lickspittles, some of whom have paid to be there. Instead of freaking everyone out with his guanopsychotic tweets, he’s freaking everyone out by NOT tweeting. Yeah. This is where we are now.

Anyone who says they know what’s in the Mueller Report, at least as of Sunday March 24, 3:30 am EST, is talking smack. Don’t believe them, don’t retweet them. It’s all speculation.

So, aside from engaging in self-care, what can you do?

Celeste Pewter, as always, is on it. Shortly after news broke of the report’s delivery, she tweeted:

If you’re wondering what we can all do right now? Basically: 1. Call electeds + say you support the report being released to Congress ASAP 2. Ask for a declassified version to be released to the public, 3. Preserving all Mueller-related documents.

In other words, don’t assume there are any guarantees right now. Right now, today, – is the moment to call your electeds and say you support the push for transparency. It’s time to be LOUD.

Then she posted this calling script, which covers all three of your Members of Congress:

So, there. You can do that.

Another thing to consider is to refresh yourself on where your nearest No One Is Above the Law protest took place. The powers that be at MoveOn are NOT currently calling for a protest over aspects of the release, or the failure to release, the Mueller report, but they’ve signaled that if they do call for a protest, we’re going back to the places we went on November 8, 2018, after Trump fired Sessions and replaced him with Acting AG Matthew Whitaker.

After you call, please show your appreciation for Celeste Pewter in some fashion.

You can follow her on Twitter: @Celeste_Pewter

You can tweet about calling your MoCs, using the #ICalledMyReps hashtag.